The Latin quatrain on the lower frames of the Ghent altarpiece was rediscovered by Gustav WaagenÌýat the Königliches Museum in BerlinÌýin 1823. At a period before the rise of archival research, it seemed to provide secure textual evidenceÌýfor the work’s patron, date and authorship by Hubert and Jan van Eyck.ÌýÌýIndeed, itÌýdefined the altarpiece as ³Ù³ó±ðÌýearliest surviving dated work of early Netherlandish painting, reinforcing a long-standing perception that it represented the beginning of a new art. It was inevitable that the question of the quatrain’s authenticity would arise, initiating a debate that has continued to the present day.ÌýÌýAddressing this debate from the point-of-view of the formal, visual and material aspects of the inscription, and considering its relationship to Jan van Eyck’s broader inscriptional practice, this talk considers the following questions: is the quatrain original, i.e. Eyckian? When was the present quatrain painted onto the frames of the altarpiece?
Susan Jones is currentlyÌýLecturer in Northern Renaissance atÌýThe Courtauld Institute. From 2014-16,Ìýworked atÌýthe KIK-IRPA (Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage) in BrusselsÌýon a collaborativeÌýdocumentation and researchÌýproject on Jan van Eyck called theVERONA project. The technical and scientificÌýimages made for the project will beÌýonline later this year.